You did it folks, you gave a “good swift kick in the butt” to the Region One administration, and some members of our Region One Board Of Education! So and now (according to tonight’s edition of The Lakeville Journal) a “special meeting of the BOE (budget and renaming of the Sci-Tech Center!) will be held March 28th. Guess it was not prudent for Pat and her cohorts to wait till the next regular BOE meeting! Thanks to all who let their voices be heard, and thanks for letting the administration know, WE ARE WATCHING AND WE DO CARE ABOUT OUR HIGH SCHOOL AND SCHOOL DISTRICT.
Category Archives: POSTS, COMMENTS, VIDEO AND AUDIO
Phil Hart just does not get it….it was Pat who put the brakes on last meeting…no one else….and Phil Hart as Chairman let her do it. Reply
From The Litchfield County Times….
Mr. Hart said Wednesday that the accusations were groundless. “I got really awful phone calls yesterday,” he reported. “They see Pat Chamberlain as behind everything, but this is nonsense. There is universal agreement that the building will be named after Jack. Thinking there is some kind of sneaky attack on him is absolutely bizarre.”
He said it is common board practice to introduce something at one meeting and to act on it at the next when members have had a chance to reflect.
photo courtesy The Corner Report
Lawrence Van Valkenburgh to Principal Harnett on Scott Fellows Reply
Dear Principal Harnett,
Here is a copy of the two pages I handed out at the ABC Board meeting last week. I never got to present it to them – as in – ask my questions, because they shut me down.
You are Scott Fellows boss. I want to know if what these pages suggest is true. Does he deny that he is the person typing and being interviewed as Falls Village resident Aeron Watson?
I want to know because this is the person who was so abusive in the media to our dedicated volunteer and Board Member Gale Toensing.
What I do know is that you are the man who is our most senior manager at our High School. Pat and Diane are not. The person we all are waiting to hear from is you. You without them. If Scott is Aeron, then what you do next will tell Region One who you really are. Are you here as the leader who sets the bar and shows the students that they are worthy of honest teachers and high expectations? Will you be the one who finally pushes back and tells them to get out of your school the way Dr Fitz did at our CornwallSchool?
Maybe now you understand how important the Pingpank Report is – and you will have respect for those that showed the best of them and gave testimony. Are you the man of quality and integrity enough so that we will not need another Pingpank report?
I have gotten so many lovely calls of thanks this week from men and women who are seeing the video of the ABC meeting and are so happy someone is speaking for Gale. It should be you getting those calls – not me.
Are you and your teachers being censored? This is one of those important moments. Show us who you are.
Sincerely,
Lawrence N Van Valkenburgh
Lawrence Van Valkenburgh to Delores Perotti/Gary Brochu 1
From: Lawrence Van Valkenburgh <lawrencevanv@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 7:37 PM
Subject: When is the next ABC meeting?
To: dperotti@nceschool.org
Cc: Lawrence Van Valkenburgh <lawrencevanv@gmail.com>,
help defend the woman who has become next in line to be bullied by Pat, Diane, and the typical gang they build which currently includes you.
Date: Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 11:45 AM
Subject: Caution
To: dperotti@nceschool.org
Date: Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 10:11 AM
Subject: You
To: “Brochu, Gary R.” <gbrochu@goodwin.com>
Just look at Region One’s administration, and then read this story!!! Malloy said he’d like to ultimately see fewer school administrators. “We’re paying these folks beaucoup money,’’ he said. “I’ve looked at some of the salaries. You’ve got some superintendents of some very small districts making as much money as superintendents of big districts. Reply
From the Associated Press
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposal to encourage small Connecticut school districts to regionalize or else risk losing some state aid is raising concerns among some
local leaders who argue that their towns are being unfairly penalized for just being little.
The legislation, starting fiscal year 2016, cuts state education aid — ranging from about $100 to $500 per student — for school districts with fewer than 1,000 students
and per-student costs that are at least 10 percent higher than the statewide average.
Malloy’s revised $20 billion budget plan sets aside $300,000 to help the districts in the meantime come up with ideas for regional cooperation and efficiency.
The Democratic governor argues that his proposal is a common-sense approach to sharing expenses and reducing burdensome local property taxes, which help cover
the lion’s share of local education costs in many small towns. Officials maintain they’ve already considered regionalization and it doesn’t always make sense.
“School districts already have an incentive to look for ways to consolidate and reduce costs because their budgets are stretched thin,’’ said Betsy Gara, the public
policy director for the Connecticut Council of Small Towns. “To penalize them simply for being a small school doesn’t make sense.’’
Malloy’s proposal was tucked into his sweeping, 163-page public education overhaul bill unveiled last month. It has been largely overshadowed by more high-profile
aspects of the legislation, such as revamping state teacher tenure rules.
In an interview on Friday with The Associated Press, Malloy read off a list of towns across the state he has identified with small student populations and well-paid
school administrators. In Norfolk, for example, he said there are 160 students, grades K-6, complete with a superintendent, principal and school board. Malloy estimated it costs about $19,000 a year to educate each child. “Everyone’s complaining about property taxes and for a lot of the communities that we’re talking about, the biggest expense is education. And I’m trying to generate a discussion about this subject,’’ Malloy said. “What we’re saying is, we’ll give you money, we’re going to give you money to sit down and have some serious discussions about how you save taxpayers money.’’
That’s just reality.’’According to Gian-Carl Casa, undersecretary for legislative affairs at the Office of Policy and Management, the governor’s budget office, there are currently 18 towns that have fewer than 1,000 pupils and spend over 110 percent of the average student expenditure. OPM’s list includes Bridgewater, Canaan, Chaplin, Cornwall, Goshen, Hampton, Kent, Lyme, Morris, Norfolk, North Canaan, Preston, Roxbury, Salisbury, Scotland, Sharon, Warren and Washington.
Was a Housatonic Valley Regional High School teacher suspended? Did the teacher then resign? Was a new teacher hired? Should not the board know at least about the events?! 2
Over the weekend, the regiononereport received information from several anonymous sources that a teacher, a Housatonic High School faculty member, had been suspended. After some investigation, we found out the following: 1. The teacher’s classes were covered by Dave Bayersdorfer. 2. The teacher, who we will leave unnamed, had resigned. 3. A new teacher was hired as of Friday, March 9.
We do not recall hearing ANY of this at the last Region One Board of Education meeting: not in a report from the Superintendent, not in a report from the Assistant Superintendent, not in a report from the high school Principal, not in a report from the Vice Principal. Is this not information that should be given by some member of the administration in a report to the Board?
We checked with Region One Board Chair Phil Hart at 12:30 Sunday afternoon, March 18, who told us he has no knowledge of such events.
We confirmed with Dave Bayersdorfer that he did indeed get called in to substitute for a teacher in this time frame.
The more things change, the more they stay the same… Reply
from The Pingpank Report, December 2010
First . . . There will be continued problems if the faculty usurps the high school principal, if the central office usurps the high school administration, or if the central office works in conjunction with selected members of the faculty to the exclusion of the high school administration.
Second, there will be continued problems if the faculty divisions are not healed or at least minimized. One would assume that the faculty, working with a new high school administration, can lessen those divisions. . .
Third, there needs to be less involvement by the central office in the daily life of the high school [which is exactly what Jack said at the August 16, 2010, meeting, which so offended the superintendent that she wrote that email kicking Jack and the 21st Century group out of the taxpayer-funded conference room]. . .
Fourth. . .Administrators should be aware that not everything that goes on in the central office needs to be kept confidential . . .
Fifth, there are concerns over intimidation by the central office. While the concern is not limited to the assistant superintendent, Ms. Goncalves is as much a lightening rod for opinion and controversy as was the [former] principal. She has been blunt. At times that bluntness has been excessive. Her manner at times can be intimidating and threatening. She should be counseled to moderate her behavior. The power of her office should allow her to give clear and direct guidance without the need for intimidation. There are clearly elements in the region that would like to see Ms. Goncalves leave. This can impair her effectiveness, much like her excessive bluntness has impaired her effectiveness. Whether she can be effective is a matter either for the Boards) to decide, or for time to tell.
In future actions, the central office needs to take care to ensure that the course of action chosen is a proper one, a proper method is used to achieve a proper result, and the proper and accurate justification for the action is given.
Sixth. . .It would be helpful if all could take actions that are in the best interest of the Regional School District, that they act with proper motives, and use proper methods.
Rules to live by Mr. Watson (Mr. Fellows) 1
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